The power of thinking time

There will always be learners who dominate the talk due to differing
confidence levels, processing times and other factors. How do we ensure that everyone has the
opportunity to respond? Sometimes it can feel like a back and forth between the teacher and only
three or four learners when the traditional ‘hands up’ approach is used. Thinking time is key here –
give learners time to think and they may well surprise us – and themselves!

Even in our adult working lives, outside a classroom, very few of us like being put on the spot. We
can feel panicked and reach for the first response we can find, whether it is of any quality or not.
We can all remember being in a classroom with a teacher staring at us, waiting for an answer, while
our mind grew steadily more blank as seconds ticked past.

When we deliberately give learners thinking time, we have a higher expectation of the response.
Learners will feel more confident and think more deeply about the question or topic in hand. We
are also implying that the question is important enough to merit this time.

We are also being inclusive when we give thinking time. Many learners will have some type of
learning need or neurodivergent need that means they may process information in a different way
to others. We could be missing out on some really interesting answers by not giving these learners
enough time to think and reflect before they respond.

It is not the aim to replace quickfire question and answer time with a teacher staring at a learner for
two minutes before they respond. We want to reduce the pressure. There are many ways of
managing thinking time in a classroom. Sometimes it will be just enough to say, “Don’t rush your
answer, think about it first – I’m happy to wait”. Sometimes there will be a different strategy used,
such as ‘think, pair, share’. This works by giving the learners a chance to discuss the question or
topic with a partner. This way, everyone is having to actively participate and consider the issue,
rather than waiting passively while one learner clarifies it for everyone else.

At other times, you may wish to give out post-it notes or whiteboards for learners to write down a
possible response. They can stick this up/hold up the whiteboard and you then may well have an
interesting discussion. This gives learners time to process information and some people need to
make notes or draw a mind map for the information to land.

Make sure the learners know that there will be thinking time given before you ask the question –
this will help the quality of the response and drill through the layer of a quick, panicked response. If
one student isn’t ready to answer, let them know that you will give them a little more time and
come back to them. Once learners know that this is the way in which you work, they will relax into
this process. They are never going to be ‘picked on’ and they will have time to clarify their thinking
or develop a new idea/opinion.

It is rarely the case that a teacher’s question has one short yes/no answer – perhaps in the case of
times tables, for example. Even then, learners will benefit from some thinking time, within reason.
Most questions require thought on more than one level; we will gain so much more from learners if
we give them time to process and reflect – thinking time.


 Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash